Just got both TV's this week.
Bought the TCL from Target, Samsung from walmart.
TCL $330, SAMSUNG $430.
Tested with www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ with all enhancements disabled.
First big fact.....
The Samsung 43 has an IPS/PLS panel made by BOE HV430QUB-N4A. RGB subpixel. Rtings.com mu6300 review does not apply here.
TCL has a VA panel made by AUO. Not sure what model. BGR subpixel. Pixel response time is noticeably slower than samsung.
So of course, the Samsung has grey blacks, but no color shifting. Even looking from a near-right angle.
Samsung appears to be edge-lit, as I can see light trails shooting up from the bottom when the background is black, and something white is displayed. So this is like your typical budget IPS monitor.
TCL has deeper blacks. but washes out quickly at an angle. As with other VA panels, darker grays shift in brightness when you move your head. IPS PLS does not.
Full array backlight on TCL.
Also, there is a screen door effect (fine vertical lines between pixels) on moving objects, and when you move your head. This makes the screen look cheap.
Samsung doesn't have the screen door effect.
Judder.... Samsung has more noticeable judder when playing 24p movies on PC. It does not allow judder correction in PC mode. TCL seems to have judder correction on all modes, so movies play a bit smoother.
mirroring both TVs, both have almost identical low input lag. The TCL has just a hair more input lag, detectable when scrolling with mouse, but both are quick.
Brightness.... I have both TV's cranked up to max brightness, and the TCL actually looks brighter when comparing a fully white screen.
Compared to my 300nits laptop screen, the TCL is like 10nits lower, and the Samsung is maybe 20 nits lower than the TCL. So both TCL and Samsung are in the 250-300 nits range.
Dirty screen effect.... TCL has very noticeable, much worse dirty screen as shown in pics below.
Colors on both TVs are set to neutral. No unrealistic radioactive color settings.
And based on this, the TCL picture quality for still images looks slightly better because better contrast. But the colors on both TVs are about the same when looking straight at screen.
TCL Roku control panel is a lot slicker than Samsung's own Smart UI.
TCL also has the Roku phone app which allows you to tweak the colors an infinite number of ways, whereas Samsung limits you to 2-point white balance.
PC mode is much better on TCL. It wakes up very fast from sleep mode. All you have to do is press an arrow button on the remote, and it instantly pops back into the computer desktop.
Samsung has a much poorer pc handshake. Once your pc goes to sleep and the tv turns off, it takes ~10 seconds for samsung to get back to desktop. For 10 seconds, it doesn't know your pc is connected, and then you press the Home button the remote a few times, and finally your pc desktop loads.
For me, the screendoor effect and washed out picture /shifting brightness of darker images at an angle are big dealbreakers for the TCL, With a fully black screen, the black levels on the TCL are slightly deeper than the Samsung, but still not super black. I like the super fast slick roku interface of the TCL, but it is not enough to overcome the flaws.
Samsung is just slightly dimmer max brightness, less deep blacks, but maintains color at wide angles, and has better pixel response time.
Because I don't look at dark images most of the time, I'm inclined to keep the Samsung instead of the TCL.
Anything else you want me to test.... just ask, and I'll update this post.
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Comparison pics were taken with the same manual settings- iso, aperture, shutter. in a dark room.
Samsung shows typical IPS blacks. TCL is just a shade darker, but not pitch black.
Dirty screen effect. Samsung is more even.
You can kind of see Samsung max brightness is just a shade dimmer than TCL, but still bright enough for regular PC use.
TCL color washes out quick
Bought the TCL from Target, Samsung from walmart.
TCL $330, SAMSUNG $430.
Tested with www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ with all enhancements disabled.
First big fact.....
The Samsung 43 has an IPS/PLS panel made by BOE HV430QUB-N4A. RGB subpixel. Rtings.com mu6300 review does not apply here.
TCL has a VA panel made by AUO. Not sure what model. BGR subpixel. Pixel response time is noticeably slower than samsung.
So of course, the Samsung has grey blacks, but no color shifting. Even looking from a near-right angle.
Samsung appears to be edge-lit, as I can see light trails shooting up from the bottom when the background is black, and something white is displayed. So this is like your typical budget IPS monitor.
TCL has deeper blacks. but washes out quickly at an angle. As with other VA panels, darker grays shift in brightness when you move your head. IPS PLS does not.
Full array backlight on TCL.
Also, there is a screen door effect (fine vertical lines between pixels) on moving objects, and when you move your head. This makes the screen look cheap.
Samsung doesn't have the screen door effect.
Judder.... Samsung has more noticeable judder when playing 24p movies on PC. It does not allow judder correction in PC mode. TCL seems to have judder correction on all modes, so movies play a bit smoother.
mirroring both TVs, both have almost identical low input lag. The TCL has just a hair more input lag, detectable when scrolling with mouse, but both are quick.
Brightness.... I have both TV's cranked up to max brightness, and the TCL actually looks brighter when comparing a fully white screen.
Compared to my 300nits laptop screen, the TCL is like 10nits lower, and the Samsung is maybe 20 nits lower than the TCL. So both TCL and Samsung are in the 250-300 nits range.
Dirty screen effect.... TCL has very noticeable, much worse dirty screen as shown in pics below.
Colors on both TVs are set to neutral. No unrealistic radioactive color settings.
And based on this, the TCL picture quality for still images looks slightly better because better contrast. But the colors on both TVs are about the same when looking straight at screen.
TCL Roku control panel is a lot slicker than Samsung's own Smart UI.
TCL also has the Roku phone app which allows you to tweak the colors an infinite number of ways, whereas Samsung limits you to 2-point white balance.
PC mode is much better on TCL. It wakes up very fast from sleep mode. All you have to do is press an arrow button on the remote, and it instantly pops back into the computer desktop.
Samsung has a much poorer pc handshake. Once your pc goes to sleep and the tv turns off, it takes ~10 seconds for samsung to get back to desktop. For 10 seconds, it doesn't know your pc is connected, and then you press the Home button the remote a few times, and finally your pc desktop loads.
For me, the screendoor effect and washed out picture /shifting brightness of darker images at an angle are big dealbreakers for the TCL, With a fully black screen, the black levels on the TCL are slightly deeper than the Samsung, but still not super black. I like the super fast slick roku interface of the TCL, but it is not enough to overcome the flaws.
Samsung is just slightly dimmer max brightness, less deep blacks, but maintains color at wide angles, and has better pixel response time.
Because I don't look at dark images most of the time, I'm inclined to keep the Samsung instead of the TCL.
Anything else you want me to test.... just ask, and I'll update this post.
----------------------------
Comparison pics were taken with the same manual settings- iso, aperture, shutter. in a dark room.
Samsung shows typical IPS blacks. TCL is just a shade darker, but not pitch black.
Dirty screen effect. Samsung is more even.
You can kind of see Samsung max brightness is just a shade dimmer than TCL, but still bright enough for regular PC use.
TCL color washes out quick
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